City urged to boost bet on manufacturing

Groups want New York City, which spent $1 billion in recent years to support manufacturing, to commit to creating 50,000 industrial jobs in the next 10 years.

Manufacturing in New York City has been on the decline since the 1940s, when the sector provided more than 1 million jobs. Over the last four years that figure has stabilized at a mere 76,000. Even now, however, industrial jobs—including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing—account for about 15% of the city's private-sector employment, according to a report released Thursday by the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.

But Pratt and others insist that percentage could and should rise. In an effort to nudge the city in that very direction they gathered on the steps of City Hall on Thursday to encourage city officials to commit to creating 50,000 industrial and manufacturing jobs in the next 10 years. Those sectors tend to employ New Yorkers with less education and pay solid wages, said Pratt Executive Director Adam Friedman.

"That's the real challenge for New York City," said Mr. Friedman. "We've done very well at the top of the income pyramid, but New York's economy is characterized by a growth in income disparity."

article continues below advertisement

Another study released Thursday noted that the city has spent heavily to support the industry—more than $1 billion in today's dollars between 2002 and 2013. Most of it came in the form of $812 million of capital spending, the majority of which went to upgrade city-owned industrial properties and food markets, according to the report by the city Independent Budget Office. Hundreds of millions more were spent on industrial tax incentives and on off-budget projects by the Economic Development Corp. and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

According to a companion IBO analysis also issued Thursday, industrial firms are more likely than companies in other sectors to employ workers without a college degree, but contrary to popular belief, most don't pay higher wages. Excluding construction jobs, which pay workers without a college degree about $5 more an hour than average, the IBO found that industrial sectors offer wages that are comparable to nonindustrial sectors like retail or food service.

Mr. Friedman said that Pratt would have to take a look at the IBO data, but he said the average annual manufacturing wage is $51,934 and has kept up with inflation over the last ten years, in contrast to other non-industrial sectors like retail and food service.

"We think it's important for the mayor to set a clear goal and clear strategy to create equitable economic opportunities to create jobs and stability, especially for people with limited educational attainment," said Barika Williams, Policy Director at ANHD.

Food Manufacturing showed the most improvement in the report, with a 7.8% increase to 15,391 jobs between 2008 and 2012. The subsector employs about twice the proportion of Hispanic workers as in the private sector as a whole, the IBO found. Other types of manufacturing, including electronics, apparel and paper manufacturing, have seen substantial loses, while industrial sectors like transportation and warehousing have seen slight gains.

To help hit the goal of creating another 50,000 industrial jobs the Pratt Center, ANHD and others would like to see the city reinstitute the Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses, improve manufacturing business services, support non-profit industrial development and improve land use and zoning policies. That could include both dedicated industrial zones and mixed use zones that protect industrial uses from more lucrative uses like residential development, said Mr. Friedman.

"Healthy communities have housing and jobs and open space and transportation," he said. "The zoning resolution was written around the time of Sputnik, and it's time to look at it and come up with some new tools."

Some members of Thursday's demonstration in front of City Hall went on to give testimony to the City Council's Committee on Economic Development and Committee on Small Business about a resolution that would call for the reestablishment of the Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses and an expansion of the services it would offer industrial businesses.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called Thursday for $4.6 million in funding for the city's industrial business zones, six of which are in his borough. Funding for business services in the zones has been reduced since 2006, and this year Mayor de Blasio slashed funding for the services in his budget proposal.

"To maintain Brooklyn's boom, we need the quality middle-class jobs our industrial and manufacturing sectors provide," said Mr. Adams in a statement. "We can build a new industrial future for New York City, one that can create tens of thousands of quality jobs."